Professor Sheila McLean FRSE, FRCGP, FRSA

Director of the Institute of Law and Ethics in Medicine, Glasgow University and Patron of the BHA

Professor McLean is the first holder of the International Bar Association Chair of Law and Ethics in Medicine at Glasgow University and is Director of the Institute of Law and Ethics in Medicine at Glasgow University. She has acted as a consultant to the World Health Organisation and the Council of Europe, and to individual States. Current public appointments include: Specialist Adviser, House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology; Member, BMA Ethics Committee; Member, Wellcome Trust, Biomedical Ethics Panel; Member, Policy and Evaluation Advisory Committee, Nuffield Trust. She has published extensively in the area of medical law, is on the Editorial Board of a number of national and international Journals.

Her research interests include all aspects of medical law, with particular reference to consent to treatment, end of life issues, human rights, genetics and the law and human reproduction – particularly reproductive rights. In addition, Professor McLean has engaged in a number of research projects which focus on the implications of legal, ethical and social science methodologies for public policy in healthcare delivery.

In her 2006 book Modern Dilemmas: Choosing Children (Capercaillie Books Limited) she argues for a libertarian approach to the ethical dilemmas of assisted reproduction, allowing parents to exercise their own consciences in respect of their future children on issues such as cloning, saviour siblings and sex selection – as long as there is no evidence of harm. Also of interest to humanists is her Old Law, New Medicine: Modern Medical Ethics and Human Rights (Rivers Oram Press/Pandora List, 1998) and First Do No Harm: Law, Ethics and Healthcare (2006). Buy her books at Amazon via this link and the BHA will earn a small commission.

Our Campaigns

We want a country where institutions such as Parliament are separate from religious organisations, and everyone is treated equally, regardless of their beliefs.

Equality & Human Rights

As humanists, we support the right of every person to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be allowed to speak, and believe, as they wish.

Bishops in the House of Lords

26 Church of England Bishops sit as of right in the House of Lords, amending legislation. This unique privilege is unfair, unjustified and unpopular.

Assisted Dying

We believe individuals should have a right to decide to end their life if they are suffering, and that relatives and doctors should be able to assist that person.

Pseudoscience

NHS funding is spent on homeopathy, despite no evidence that it has health benefits beyond the placebo effect. This could be spent on other treatment.

Animal Welfare

UK law requires that animals killed for food are stunned before slaughter, as this is the most humane method – except with religious slaughter such as kosher and some halal, where there are exemptions.